Podblast! How To Do Everything

I listen to a lot of podcasts.  While driving, working (both at home and at the office), and sometimes while just sitting around, I'll have interviews, humor, and pop culture flowing into my ears from my tiny little music device.

This week, I want to spotlight the How To Do Everything podcast, brought about by two very funny guys: Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag.

I first became aware of them as two of the people responsible for the NPR program Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and I guess this is their side project.  Each week, they tackle important topics that people generally tend to ignore, such as interviewing little-known Olympic athletes in events most people ignore, the proper way to use Doritos to start a campfire, how to locate a quality public bathroom, or how to sit behind the President when he gives a speech.

You know, everyday stuff.

The program is very close to its 100th episode, so I figured now would be a good time to talk about it (as opposed to when that episode comes out or after it comes out, I guess).

Now, Ian and Mike are not experts on anything, as near as I can tell.  But they are skilled entertainers, and are willing to take whatever question someone might contact them with and do their best to find, if not the best answer, then at least the most entertaining answer.  They are also able to contact a pretty wide variety of people in order to get answers (one of my personal favorites was getting Adam Savage on the line to find out how to be a Mythbusters intern).

Now, this isn't to say that I haven't had problems with some episodes.  For instance, they did one episode about saving fuel that, to be fair, might have been meant to be taken as "dear lord, look at how extreme this guy we're talking to is, this is ridiculous."  However, considering the person they were talking to rolled his car down the street with no power and then coasted down hills before getting to a highway on-ramp...that's pretty dangerous.

They invented power steering and anti-lock brakes for a reason, fella.

The podcasts are never very long (about twenty minutes, usually, sometimes more sometimes less), but the two hosts are sharp, have keen senses of humor, and do provide some interesting information.  If you're a hopeless trivia nerd like myself, I recommend heading to their website to listen to a few.  They're also available on iTunes, and perhaps tumblr, though I'm still trying to figure that site out.

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Also, don't forget the survey is still happening!  Head there and vote so I know what you're interested in reading!

If you don't vote, you can't complain when I toss out all the options and start looking for classic episodes of the Pac-Man cartoon show!